Investment In Autogas: Lagos Assembly Assures Ibile Oil and Gas Corporation of Support

The Lagos State House of Assembly has promised to provide the necessary support for Ibile Oil and Gas Corporation (IOGC) in it’s bid to access loan for it’s Autogas project.

Chairman of the House Committee on Energy, Hon. Folajinmi Mohammed said that the presentation made by a team from Ibile Oil and Gas Corporation (IOGC) before the committee on Tuesday would be critically considered.

“The aim is to advocate for the deepening of gas in Lagos State.

“The National Gas Expansion Programme has turned this year as the year of gas to deepen the use of gas.

“Ibile Oil and Gas Corporation is trying to go into the business of autogas and domestic use of gas in Lagos State.

“What we have requested for is financial, to see if there is need for us to be more conservative with finance.

“As members of parliament it’s within our right to perform our oversight function.

“Nigeria has the lowest in terms of gas usage. Anything that has to do with the deepening or the penetration of gas should be encouraged,” he said.

Mohammed stated that the project is about N25 Billion, but that IOGC has applied for a loan of between N8 and N9 Billion.

The loan, he said is being applied through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which he said will direct them to a participating bank, but that it will be accessed via CBN intervention fund.

The Managing Director of IOGC, Mrs. Doyin Akinyanju, who led top management staff of the company to the meeting, said that it is a viable project.

Akinyanju stated that Lagos State had the advantage of making the first move for the Autogas project, saying that 4,000 cars would be converted to Autogas within two years our of the four million cars in the state.

“We need to let the people know that gas is safer. We believe that our finance proposal is conservative.

“This was the proposal we shared with the CBN and the state Executive Council. We want to show other parts of the country that we have the standard and that it can be done properly.

“We moved around Lagos State with the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to see the cylinder filling plants in the state.

“The state has about 500 cylinder filling plants, but they do not have the required safety measures. They are risks to the neighbourhood,” she said.

The Managing Director stressed that IOGC wanted to do it better with the proposed conversion plants, which she said would be in four locations, adding that Lagos State wants to set a standard that others would follow.

The four workshops for the conversion, she said would be developed with the company’s partners, who will be in the country for two years.

She said that the partners would train about 5,000 local engineers, which she said would be part of the running expenses of the project.